Important Notes

This section describes important information about Cisco WCS.

Cisco WCS Upgrade

When you are upgrading from release 2.2.25.0 or later, the existing Cisco WCS backup procedure and the new restore and upgrade instructions are in the Cisco Wireless LAN Solution Product Guide. A backup from a Cisco WCS for Windows cannot be applied to a Cisco WCS for Linux or vice versa.

Compatibility

This release of Cisco WCS for Windows is compatible with Wireless LAN Controller and Cisco lightweight access point operating system 2.2 or later.

MCS7800 Servers

Cisco MCS7800 servers are not supported as Cisco WCS servers.

Changing Static WEP Key Indexes

Changing the static WEP key index on a WLAN fails. Change the WEP key index by deleting the WLAN and recreating the WLAN with the correct WEP key index.

Cisco WCS Physical Location and IP Addresses

Cisco WCS is intended to be run on a robust desktop or rack-mount machine in a server room, but the Cisco WCS user interface is intended be run on any Windows workstation. If you need to change the IP parameters on the Cisco WCS workstation, such as the IP address or the default gateway, shut down Cisco WCS before making the change, and bring Cisco WCS up after your IP configuration changes are complete.

Map Rendering

When you have more than 200 tags, clients, or rogues on a maps page, then map page rendering can be slow. The browser may temporarily freeze during the first rendering and when it renders at every refresh interval. Cisco recommends that the network operator use filters to limit the number of visible entries to under 200 for each asset type (client, tag, rogue access point, rogue client) and then save that as default view if more than 200 of any of each asset type are expected on a map.

Background Policies Time Intervals

The default time intervals for scheduled policies give optimal performance when Cisco WCS is monitoring up to 500 Cisco lightweight access points. When Cisco WCS is monitoring more than 500 Cisco lightweight access points, increase the time intervals to the following values:

•Device Status Policy --- 12 minutes

•Statistics ---- 30 minutes

•Client Statistics --- 30 minutes

•Rogue AP --- 120 minutes

Cisco WCS declares Wireless LAN Controllers as Unreachable/No Response When the Write Community String Is Not Set

This problem occurs only when a network operator is using a read-only community string, and enters the string only in the community field of SNMP Read Operations, and clears out the community field in the SNMP Write Operations, leaving it blank (CSCsb06029). Workaround: Enter the community string in both SNMP Read Operations and SNMP Write Operations.

Manually Executing Scheduled Tasks

Manual execution of scheduled tasks (device status, client stats, rogue access point, and statistics) do not run immediately if any of the other tasks are already running. Instead, Cisco WCS queues and executes them as soon as the running tasks are completed.

Polling Intervals

The poll interval for Cisco 2700 Series location appliances is the time between polls (CSCar15324). When the poll interval is set to 1 second, and the actual poll takes 20 seconds, the start of each poll is 21 seconds apart.

Slow Imports of FPE Files with More Than 200 Walls

Importing a floor plan editor (FPE) file with more than 200 walls can be slow and the browser may not report any status or redirect you to any other page. Workaround: Do not click anywhere on the map page for at least five minutes before you try to verify that the file is imported.

Monitoring Cisco Wireless Services Modules with Cisco WCS

WiSMs use the service port for communication with the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches supervisor (CSCsb49178). Do not use the service port to manage WiSM using Cisco WCS.

Caveats

This section lists open caveats in Cisco WCS for Windows 3.1.35.0.

Open Caveats

These caveats are open in Cisco WCS for Windows 3.1.35.0:

•CSCar10266—Cisco WCS does not start when the Cisco WCS server has dual network interface cards (NICs).Workaround: Disable one of the NICs, reboot the Cisco WCS server, and restart Cisco WCS.

•CSCar13038—Downloading Wireless LAN Controller code from Cisco WCS fails when the Cisco WCS server has two interfaces. Download also fails when tried by browsing from the download page. This occurs when the code file is placed in the default acs-tftp directory, and when the Cisco WCS server has two interfaces: one interface on the switched network and another on a different network, with both the interfaces enabled. The Cisco WCS TFTP server may be listening on another interface that is not reachable by the Wireless LAN Controller. This caveat is not reproducible with one interface.Workaround: Either disable the second network interface card or use a remote TFTP server.

•CSCar13120—Cisco WCS fails with a null pointer exception because it cannot resolve the name-address of the network DNS server. The Cisco WCS software appears to have conflicts with a DNS name resolution server running on the same Cisco WCS server. The server is configured for DHCP, which receives a name-address resolution from a network server but Cisco WCS attempts to resolve the name-address locally.Workaround: Run the DNS server on another workstation, fix the name resolution problem on the Cisco WCS server, or remove the local DNS server.

•CSCar13518—Configuration Backup Time does not allow time 12:00 AM to be set. Select Admin -> Scheduled Tasks -> Configuration backup. When trying to save time as 12:00 AM Cisco WCS automatically changes the time to 12:00 PM hours.Workaround: Enter 00:00 to 00:59.

•CSCar13919—Wireless LAN Controllers added to Cisco WCS are lost after reboot. When any change in the Cisco WCS database is quickly followed by an abnormal termination of Cisco WCS (such as a hard reboot of the system), the newly changed information is absent when Cisco WCS is restarted.Workaround: If you do not shut down Cisco WCS properly it does not commit the transactions to the database on the disk, and they are lost because Cisco WCS does not have transaction logging switched on.

•CSCsa93016—While running IE from a Windows 2003 Cisco WCS server, the browser times out when attempting long running tasks like deleting multiple Wireless LAN Controllers from WCS. This is an issue on Windows 2003 Servers running IE. There connectivity timeout setting is too low for long running tasks, it is recommended that a client version of the operating system be used for browsing.

•CSCsa93250—Resizing a floorplan using "Edit Floor" does not resize coverage areas. This caveat can be reproduced by changing the width/height for a given floor. Workaround: Use the Map Editor for floor resizing. This is not recommended since it does not maintain aspect ratio. The purpose of the Floor -> Edit page is to change image, floor name, or other properties.

•CSCsb04081—Creating a map directly by using a file image from the floor plan editor (FPE) tool is no longer allowed in Cisco WCS. The option to import this type of file is not present in the user interface and attempting to import the file causes Cisco WCS to generate a message indicating that the user needs to enter a valid JPG or PNG image. Workaround: Create a map with a regular image and later use the option to Edit the Floor and reimport the map image with an FPE file. The FPE tool is no longer supported in Cisco WCS. Users are encouraged to use the new Map Editor tool provided within Cisco WCS to draw obstacles, etc.

•CSCsb15455—Cisco WCS shows timestamps for location server details and history pages based on the Cisco WCS locale and not based on the location server timestamp.Workaround: If the location server is in one time zone locating objects across multiple time zones, and if a network operator is in a different time zone accessing the information through Cisco WCS, then the time stamps are based on the second/Cisco WCS time zone timestamps. The time is correct for all the objects located in the second/Cisco WCS time zone.

•CSCsb17095—Adding an invalid IP address as a network route shows added to WCS, but not to the Wireless LAN Controller. Adding invalid IP network routes like 0.0.0.0 causes this problem. Workaround: Do not add invalid IP addresses as network routes.

•CSCsb32294—Copy & Replace AP fails with an SNMP error. This Caveat occurs when trying to copy and replace between different models of Cisco lightweight access points.Workaround: Copy & Replace AP functionality only works for Cisco Aironet 1000 series lightweight access points, and works only between same models. i.e. Cisco Aironet 1000 series lightweight access point to Cisco Aironet 1000 series lightweight access point and not Cisco Aironet 1000 series lightweight access point to Cisco Aironet 1030 remote edge lightweight access point. Copy & Replace AP for Cisco Aironet 1130 series lightweight access points, Cisco Aironet 1200 series lightweight access points, and Cisco Aironet 1240 series lightweight access points and for cross models are not supported in the 3.1 operating system release.

•CSCsb39611—The uninstaller fails with an error of "unable to locate executable." When installing if two spaces are placed together in the path name, such as "C:\WCS 31" the install works fine, but causes the uninstaller to fail.Workaround: Remove one of the extra spaces in the pathname and the uninstaller should work fine.

•CSCsb45947—Searching for clients or tags by MAC address in Cisco 2700 Series location appliances may return a message indicating that no elements were found, while the same elements can be found on the maps or in the list of all elements. This occurs when searching for elements on the Cisco 2700 Series location appliances by MAC address and when the user enters a partial MAC address or the straight alphanumeric values. Workaround: When searching for clients or tags by MAC address on the Cisco 2700 Series location appliances, enter the full MAC address value, separating each pair of numbers with colons. For example, enter 00:00:00:11:11:11.

•CSCsb52149—Cisco Aironet 802.11a/b/g Wireless Cardbus Adapter (AIR-CB21AG) clients are not ideal for calibrating the location model. The AIR-CB21AG clients do not send the SSID in the probe request when the Broadcast SSID is disabled on the Wireless LAN Controller.

•CSCsb54606—A backup from the latest release of Cisco 2700 Series location appliance software cannot be restored on a Cisco 2700 Series location appliance running an earlier release. Before you upgrade a Cisco 2700 Series location appliance to the latest release, Cisco recommends that you create a backup for the earlier release and archive it in case you need to revert an upgraded Cisco 2700 Series location appliance to an earlier release.

•CSCsb61234—Cisco WCS cannot find an antenna type for Cisco Aironet 1500 series lightweight outdoor access points when map positioning, resulting in no heatmaps or location for the Cisco Aironet 1500 series lightweight outdoor access points.Workaround: Choose other as the antenna pattern for Cisco Aironet 1500 series lightweight outdoor access points.

•CSCsb93638—Network operators cannot edit the retransmit timeout value of a RADIUS authentication server template. Workaround: Create a new RADIUS authentication server template with the correct value and delete the old one.

•CSCsb93676—When in planning mode, newly-added Cisco lightweight access points do not show up in the leftmost corner when the operator wants to place them on the maps. For instance, go to WCS - Maps- Planning Mode - Add APs, select Automatic mode, add about 50 Cisco lightweight access points. Now add more Cisco lightweight access points using the manual mode. These newly added Cisco lightweight access points do not show up on the top left corner of the planning mode window. Instead, they are on the top right corner. Workaround: Scroll to the right to find the newly added Cisco lightweight access points and then place them.

•CSCsc18059—An incorrect Cisco lightweight access point type/model is shown in Cisco WCS. This can be observed when adding new Cisco lightweight access points into Cisco WCS. Workaround: No functionality is affected. You can verify the model number from the Wireless LAN Controller web user interface.

•CSCsc35784—The Wireless LAN Controller transmit power control adjustment levels 3, 4 and 5 are not supported on Cisco Aironet 1500 series lightweight outdoor access points; these levels correspond to -6, -9, and -12 dB from the maximum power, respectively. Power levels 1 and 2 are supported, which correspond to maximum power for the particular data rate and channel, and -3 dB relative to this maximum. Both the 2.4- and 5.8-GHz bands are affected, at which these adjustment levels provide little or no further reduction in transmit power output.

•CSCsb77643—As Cisco Aironet 1130 series lightweight access points and Cisco Aironet 1200 series lightweight access points are being installed either fresh from the factory or upgraded in the field, they start in a "mini-IOS" mode which associates with a Wireless LAN Controller and Cisco WCS using its Ethernet MAC address. When the Cisco Aironet lightweight access point upgrades to LWAPP it associates again with its beacon source identifier (BSID) MAC address. Cisco WCS sees this as a whole new Cisco Aironet lightweight access point and now has two entries (the old one is disassociated).The following fixes have been applied: When Cisco WCS discovers a new Cisco Aironet lightweight access point with no radios, it does not add it. Also, Cisco WCS now provides a way to search for all unassociated Cisco Aironet lightweight access points and remove them from the Cisco WCS database.

•CSCsb86262—Synchronizing floorplans from Cisco 2700 series location appliances now works correctly.

•CSCsb86277—In Cisco WCS, before synchronizing a Cisco 2700 series location appliance with a floor plans with Cisco Aironet lightweight access points, click Enable OW Location under the Location Parameters for the Cisco 2700 series location appliance. Then synchronize Cisco WCS to the Cisco 2700 series location appliance.

Troubleshooting

For the most up-to-date, detailed troubleshooting information, refer to the Cisco TAC website at the following location:

Click Technology Support, select Wireless from the menu on the left, and click Wireless LAN.

Related Documentation

For information on the Cisco Unified Wireless Network Solution and for instructions on how to configure and use the Cisco UWN, refer to the Cisco Wireless Control SystemConfiguration Guide.

Obtaining Documentation and Submitting a Service Request

For information on obtaining documentation, submitting a service request, and gathering additional information, see the monthly What's New in Cisco Product Documentation, which also lists all new and revised Cisco technical documentation:

Subscribe to the What's New in Cisco Product Documentation as an RSS feed and set content to be delivered directly to your desktop using a reader application. The RSS feeds are a free service. Cisco currently supports RSS Version 2.0.

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R)